The Echoes of Love by Hannah Fielding

*Received for an honest opinion.

also posted on ramblingsfromthischick.blogspot.com

The Echoes of Love by Hannah Fielding was an interesting read.  There were some parts that I really enjoyed and some parts I had a difficult time with.  Venetia, our heroine, and Pablo, our hero, were difficult to understand at first.  Their relationship was almost a little creepy.  Paolo and Venetia meet when he rescues her from a mugging.  He is very helpful and although she is appreciative of his help she is very leery of him.  After this chance meeting they keep running into each other and he keeps trying to engage her.  He asks her out, he offers her a ride, and he is basically telling her that he is interested.  Venetia is very cautious with him.  She does not trust or know him and she doesn’t seem to want to.   As the story unfolds it becomes apparent why at first she is so hesitant but until that it almost feels like he is stalking her.  This was the difficult part for me because I wasn’t sure how to feel about them.  What kind of relationship was this?  Venetia is also very guarded.  When he asks her about her relationship status she flips on him and basically tells him it’s none of your business. Again, a little strange. 

The author is highly descriptive about basically everything.  She goes into very great detail about Venice itself, which sounds beautiful.  She gives many phrases in Italian, which also sounds beautiful, but as I was reading these extra description they seem to take up a lot of the story telling and it almost interrupted the flow of the story.  Fielding also inserts a lot of different sayings from different people.  For example, Paolo all of the sudden says a quote in English.  It didn’t flow with the story,  I don’t know many people that say random quotes off the top of their head.  I think some readers would really enjoy this, I could have done with a little less of the above mentioned.   Though the setting sounded beautiful there was and underlining tone of unease.  There are definitely elements of a romance story here but I almost felt like this was more of women’s fiction just because Venetia is a bigger part of the story than anything else. 

Although the author gives us insight into why Venetia is so cautious, at times boarding on mean, I thought that it was a little too over the top and dramatic.  Throughout the story there was an underlining tone of something quite not right and at the end the author gives away a big secret. The big secret at the end was a little bit of a disappointment for me… I didn’t find it believable.  It did clear up for me why I had an unsettling feeling throughout the story though.   Overall, this book was very original, I can honestly say that I never read anything like it.  The author gives different points of view to help make the story more understandable.  Any reader that enjoys learning about different countries, especially Italy, will really love this story because the author really helps you to experience the country and culture.